Fireball lights up Russian sky

A blazing fireball appeared over the northern Murmansk region of Russia last week. Recorded with dashboard cameras, the explosion evokes the February 2013 meteorite explosion over the city of Chelyabinsk, which injured more than 1,200 people.

On early Saturday morning, the northern Murmansk region of Russia witnessed a fireball explosion that lit up the sky very briefly. No damages were being reported. The explosion recorded using Dashcam videos and posted on YouTube is a grim reminder of what happened on February 2013, when a meteor strike over the city of Chelyabinsk injured more than 1,200.

The explosion, recorded by dashboard video cameras and posted on YouTube, is a grim reminder of what happened on February 2013, when a meteor strike over the city of Chelyabinsk injured more than 1,200.

After watching the video of the fireball, Sergei Smirnov, chief researcher at the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory near St. Petersburg, couldn’t establish the trajectory or the exact altitude of the meteor but, he said that "it was traveling 'many tens of kilometers' above the ground," reported The Moscow Times.

Also, the object seen was a meteor, not a meteorite, as its flight "ended in combustion" instead of a collision with the Earth, Dr. Smirnov told Interfax.

A meteor, or a shooting star is a streak of light observed when a meteoroid, or a small particle from an asteroid or a comet enters the Earth and vaporizes. When a meteoroid survives the Earth's atmosphere and lands on its surface, it is called a meteorite.

Russia's TV Tsentr television said the event was part of the annual Lyrid meteor shower and disintegrated before it could land on the Earth. The Lyrids, which usually peak on April 21-22, comes from the dust trail of Comet Thatcher.